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Topic: BeeVac wins again (Read 2660 times)

Hi every Body It Has Been About A year since all 9 of my hives collapsed But I am Trying To come back. I have 2 Feral hives and a colony in the wall of a local business. I have been looking at different BeeVacs finally decided on one but I lost the thread it was on. the box was a deep hive body, but I tried a one hp shop vac, not strong enough, went to a two hp, still not strong enough. I Will try to explain my set up I have the suction hose in the front The complete shop vac in the back the inside of the box has foam rubber around it and screen (where needed) some pictures I have saw has the motor on top of the box, does that make a difference if so how do you take it apart? ANY AND ALL INFO WILL BE APPRICATED:'( I will try to include photos).

You must have too much air leaking around the hose connections or the box somewher. that should be more than enough vacuum.Silicone the hose connections where they go in thebox,seal all the cracks around the edges of the box that are not needed to come apart,and use some kind of gasket on the pieces that do come apert.If the vacuum is strong enough without the box,it should be strong enough with the box.The box should in effect become a vacuum reservoir until it is opened somewhere.

I made one like the link posted -with top and bottom pieces that detach from ordinary supers (thanks robo!) but I use mediums, most of my boxes are homemade... most were thrown together without any attention to detail, this means lots of gaps between boxes, etc.

I have found that to use it (I do like the setup, but don't always use it) I need to: a) find boxes that fit together pretty darn well with the top and bottom pieces (and eachother- I am often using 2 maybe even 3 mediums) b) use a my big shop vac I think it is 15 gallons and 5hp? The little ones always end up burning out on me anyways... c). if this fails bring a roll of duct tape and use it to tape between all of the boxes, etc, hose connections possibly, AND use duct tape to close off more of the air vent/ bypass to dial in the suction

with your setup beecowboy, I would think the most likely place for air leaking is around the slide, possibly around the hose connections... try hooking the shop vac up in reverse (tube to output- so it "blows") plug the end of the hose, and feel around for air escaping

I've been very fascinated by the pictures of the bee vacs, and swarm catching in general. Nice pictures!

Here in Norway, on the other hand, you can only catch swarms of known origin from certified apiaries. All other swarms must be destroyed. Reminds me, I must send the form to the state inspector to get my apiary certified. Without a certification I can not move (or sell) bees from this apiary.

Compared to a normal vacum cleaner, how strong is the suction in the front of the tube when vacuming? I guess the bees are all right in the box, but what about the travelling in the tube on the way down? Do you find many harmed bees in the box after use?

when you use this design, do you make the bottom a slide out? i was thinking that by doing that, you could place it over your super, slide off the bottom and install the bees, with less trauma.

if not...how do you remove the bees from the vac box into the super?

never mind....i took a better look at the last picture :-D

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

That looks like a great idea... I had a similar idea, except it included making a "bee vac out of an open bottom, but closed top shallow super, then attaching that super onto a deep hive body with frames and everything (I don't know that it has to have drawn comb, but at least foundation for them to walk on)... Seal that up with come duct tape, and place a solid board under it, and attach that to the bottom of the deep with duct tape as well to seal it. Then just strap the whole thing together and you're ready to go. Might be a little heavier, but I think it would still be cool.

Could even put a feeder in... or whatever else you want to help them transition. Once you're ready to set them up, just pop the whole thing onto the bottom board you want to use (swarm) or hive body(s) that you put their own comb in (cutout), undo and remove the straps and duct tape around the bottom... then just slide the bottom off the bee vac and let them readjust to their new home. In a day or two you can come back and remove the bee vac from the top and put a proper top on.

What do you think?

PS - One problem I can already see if doing a cutout with it would be keeping brood comb from getting too cold with no bees on it... for that, the only thing i can think would be to put the capped brood in one of those heated coolers that's set to just the right temp. to store it 'til you can get the bees back on it in a few hours.

you wouldn't use the vacuum to remove all the bees. you do the cutout and take the brood...and hopefully the queen. the vac is to remove the leftover bees. the ones that clump in the old hive space, etc. you still have to do all the removal first, or you don't end up with a viable hive......unless you are doing a removal in such a tight space that you just rip stuff out and then vacuum and hope you get the queen and most of the bees. in that case, you are probably going to combine what you get in the vac with another hive and hope for the best.

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

you wouldn't use the vacuum to remove all the bees. you do the cutout and take the brood...and hopefully the queen. the vac is to remove the leftover bees. the ones that clump in the old hive space, etc. you still have to do all the removal first, or you don't end up with a viable hive......unless you are doing a removal in such a tight space that you just rip stuff out and then vacuum and hope you get the queen and most of the bees. in that case, you are probably going to combine what you get in the vac with another hive and hope for the best.

That's the thing though, I don't see why you couldn't use that vac to remove all the bees, including the queen (provided you don't attach a 500hp vac to it that smashes her up on her way in).

PS - One problem I can already see if doing a cutout with it would be keeping brood comb from getting too cold with no bees on it... for that, the only thing i can think would be to put the capped brood in one of those heated coolers that's set to just the right temp. to store it 'til you can get the bees back on it in a few hours.

I carry a polystyrene nuc with no entrace/vents in it. I cut out the brood and place it in frames and store it in the nuc until I get home. I then just put the brood frames in the top of the hive. Works well for me.

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